From Manchester to Massachusetts via Mulhouse: The Transatlantic Voyage of Aniline Black

Abstract

From Manchester to Massachusetts via Mulhouse: The Transatlantic Voyage of Aniline Black ANTHONY S. TRAVIS During the 18th and 19th centuries the introduction of new technologies into countries anxious to industrialize or retain their competitiveness in existing markets was the principal feature of modernization in Europe and North America, especially in the textile industry.1 The routes of this technology transfer were varied. They involved industrial espionage, legal and illegal exports of machinery and designs, patent agreements (and infringements), and cartel arrangements. Sometimes transfer occurred because a particular invention was not appreciated, or readily applicable, in the country of its origins. In the case of the dyestuff (or pigment) known as “aniline black,” many of these elements are present. Its discovery in Lanca­ shire, Great Britain, was a consequence of the rise of a new hightechnology industry, the production of synthetic dyestuffs. However, its widespread application was delayed for over a decade because the process was much better suited to the traditional methods of printing with hand blocks than to the new high-speed steam-driven roller printing machines to be found in Britain’s northwest and, in increas­ ing numbers, in the United States (see fig. 1). The result was that Dr. Travis is deputy director of the Sidney M. Edelstein Center for the History and Philosophy of Science, Technology and Medicine at the Hebrew University ofJerusalem, where he is senior researcher in the history of technology. He wishes to acknowledge the assistance of Jean Ayton, archivist, and Richard Bond, local studies officer, both of Manchester Central Library; Kenneth P. Magee, historical archivist, Zeneca Specialties, Manchester; Moshe Ron, former curator, Sidney M. Edelstein Library, the Hebrew Uni­ versity of Jerusalem; and Elisabeth Vaupel, curator of the Chemistry Section, Deutsches Museum, Munich. The Technology and Culture referees provided much useful criticism. 'Nathan Rosenberg first tackled the issue of technology transfer in “Economic Development and Transfer of Technology: Some Historical Perspectives,” Technology and Culture 11 (October 1970): 551-75. For the impact on the early U.S. textile industry, see David J. Jeremy, Transatlantic Industrial Revolution: The Diffusion of Textile Technologies between Britain and America, 1790-1830 (Cambridge, Mass., 1981). A useful survey of the 19th century will be found in David J. Jeremy, ed., International Technology Transfer (Aldershot, Hampshire, 1990).© 1994 by the Society for the History of Technology. All rights reserved. 0040-165X/94/3501-0001$01.00 70 The Transatlantic Voyage ofAniline Black 71 Fig. 1.—Mass production of printed cotton goods was based on the adoption of power-driven machinery in the early 1800s. Mechanized calico (cotton) printing was quickly established in Britain and the United States, but less rapidly in many parts of mainland Europe, where block printing, which was associated with better-quality goods, remained prevalent until the 1870s. This determined where the first aniline black processes could be introduced with moderate success. (George S. White, Memoir ofSamuel Slater, the Father ofAmerican Manufactures. Connected with a History ofthe Rise and Progress of the Cotton Manufacture in England and America. With Remarks on the Moral Influence ofManufactories in the United States [Philadelphia, 1836], p. 395, detail.) aniline black first became popular among printers on mainland Europe, where mechanization was less rapid, from as early as 1862— 63. These printers were not slow in appreciating, and profiting from, the beneficial qualities of the brilliant black, that unlike the other coal-tar colors was far more suited to cellulosic material (cotton) than to animal fibers (wool and silk). The earliest true synthetic dyestuffs were prepared by oxidizing the amino compound aniline, made in two steps from benzene that was extracted from coal tar (since the benzene was contaminated with other hydrocarbons, additional amino compounds, especially toluidine, 72 Anthony S. Travis were also present). William Perkin discovered the first aniline colo­ rant, later known as “mauve,” in 1856. It was formed in low yield, and the main product was an intractable black precipitate. Three years later a brilliant aniline red, known as “fuchsine” in France and “Magenta” in Britain, appeared in the streets of Paris and London and was soon transformed into no less fashionable blues and violets. The violets, obtained by August Wilhelm Hofmann in his laboratory at...